Mop wringer



Dec. 21, 1943. R. M. ELKENGTON MOP WRINGER Filed March 16, 1942 4 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. W k.

' M&W

ATTORNEYS.

Dec. 21, 1943.

R. M. ELKINGTQN MOP WRINGER INVENTOR. W a4,

Mahmoud A TTORNEYS.

Dec. 21, 194-3. ELK|NGTQN 2,337,319

MOP WRINGER Filed March 16, 1942 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 A rm/aways.

Dec. 21, 1943. .RfM. ELKINGTON MOP WRINGER 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed March 16, 1942 INEN TOR.

A TTORNEYS.

Patented Dec. 21, 1943 7 Claims. (01. 15-261) My present invention relates to what is commonly called a mop wringer of the type where the water is pressed or squeezed out of the mop by outside separate members, as distinct from the type where the fabric of the mop is twisted.

The general purpose of my invention is to provide an improvement in the type of mop wringer where two presser pads in the open position of the wringer extend above the mop-receiving receptacle on two opposite sides thereof and are swan inwardly and over the mop after the mop has been placed in the mop receptacle and then said presser pads are moved downwardly exerting a pressure upon the mop to force the water therefrom and cause it to run out through the perforated front, back, sides and bottom of the mop receptacle. Mop wringers of this type have been made heretofore and have some special advantages in that the mop pads being over the mop, the water is not squirted from the mop upwardly into the operators face or upon his body when the operator begins to operate the wringer.

Heretofore however mop wringers of this type have been operated by a rack and gear mechanism, which mechanism is poorly adapted to operate such a device in that a large part of the operators power is absorbed in friction within the wringer and the mechanism is peculiarly subject to becomin worn, thereby making more friction, and also especially subject to being Y broken through the strain of use. Furthermore the rack and gear mechanism is particularly subject to wear and breakage where the parts are not housed in strong rigid supports and are not lubricated, whereas a mop wringer is constantly subject to the action of dirty soapy water, which washes away, destroys or neutralizes any lubricant that is so essential to the contacting faces of a rack and gear mechanism.

The purpose of this present invention is to overcome the foregoing disadvantages and to provide a new and improved operating mechanism for a wringer having the swinging, overhead mounted presser pads of the type above mentioned and furthermore to provide a suitable and very efficient operating mechanism composed.

of the squeezer or presser type is that after most of the water has been pressed out from the fabric of the mop the final pressing of the mop to remove the extractable water requires great pressureon the part of the presser members. One form of this general type of mop Wringer and using a rack and gear operating mechanism pur ported to obtain this greater pressure by using a driving fragmental gear of gradually reducing radius. Theoretically such an operating mechanism would give the increased power towards the end of the wringing operation but in practice it is well known among persons experienced in mechanical devices that such an irregular form of rack and pinion is especially wasteful of power when used in the circumstances of a mop where there is no strong rigid well-anchored framework for the support of the rack and gear and where the parts are very inadequately lubricated.

Accordingly a further purpose of my present invention is to provide a mop wringer operating mechanism essentially of the lever and connecting link and slider construction of such character that provision is made for the wringer to gradually increase the pressure upon the mop during the middle of the operating stroke without imposing greater exertion upon the operator and without incidentally imposing excessive wear and strain upon the mechanism.

A still further purpose is to provide a construction of the type suggested where not only is gradually increasing pressure provided during the intermediate stage of the wringing operation but after a predetermined point is reached the pressure remains substantially constant instead of increasing to a point that might damage the device.

A further purpose is that the means for so modifying the action shall be such that planned and easily made adjustments of size or location of such controlling mechanism on one or two parts will adapt the main parts of the wringer to several sizes or classes of wringer, thus saving the manufacturer from having to provide a full set of different parts of the wringer for each size or class of wringer.

Further purposes and advantages ofmy invention will appear from the specification and claims herein.

1 is a perspective view as seen from the front of a mop wringer embodying my invention, the parts being in the position they occupy when the wringer is in open position.

with the parts in the position they occupy when.

the presser pads have been swung inwardly and started downwardly.

Fig. is a similar right side elevation but with the parts in the position they occupy when the presser pads are at downward position.

Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional View on line 66 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of one of the pads of my mop wringer.

Fig. 8 is an outside elevation of one of the inverted T-shaped sliders used in my wringer.

Fig. 9 is .a side elevation on an enlarged scale of the right-hand main lever 36, upwardly extending link 39, short link 4! and crank arm 2'! in the relative positions of those parts where their action begins to be modified by stop pin 5|.

' Fig. 10 is a top View of the forward presser pad in its open position.

Fig. 11 is an elevational view of the right-hand end of the front presser padon an enlarged scale, in the position it takes during its main downward and pressing movement.

Fig. 12 is a side elevation on an enlarged scale similar to Fig. 9, of the right-hand parts namely long link 35, shorter link 4! and crank arm 21, in their positions where theirincreasing leverage action begins to be m d fied to result in a constant leverage, not by'the stop pin 5| of Fig. 9 but by enlargements upon the crank arm 2'! and the longer link 39.

Referring to the drawings in a more particular description and first to the form of mechanism of Figs. 1 to 11, it will be seen that the mop wri-nger of my invention has an open-topped box-like mop-receiving receptacle i2 convenientlycomposed of a front plate I3, a back plate is and a bottom 85, all three members of which are numerously perforated for the escape of water from said receptacle and conveniently these three parts may be, and preferably will be, formed integrally from one suitable piece of thick sheet metal. 7

These three parts are rigidly and permanently secured to the central section of two oppositely located side plates 56 which are of similar construction except that one is at the righthand side and one is at the left-hand side of the mop wringer. Preferably the inner face of the central section of each. of the side plates I6 is provided with a strong inwardly extending ridge H which is so arranged in the original forming of said side plates as to come intimately against the exterior faces of said front and rear plates and the bottom, so that by the time through rods it are put in place below the bottom with their ends extending into apertures in the two side plates and with the outer ends of said rods riveted over against said side plates, and similar through rods iii are placed near the top of the back and front plates with their ends projecting through the adjacent portions of the side plates and there riveted over in the well known manner of such things, the said front'and rear plates and bottom assembly are very rigidly and permanently secured in place especially when as in my device said upper through rods l9 pass presser through the aperture formed by rolling over the upper edge of the front and back plates.

Each of said side plates i6 is provided with a centrally located vertically arranged long slot 29 forming a guideway for a part to be hereinafter described, each of said side plates is provided wi h a pair of shorter slots 2i arranged on the opposit sides of said central slot and spaced therefrom and for most of their length parallel therewith. The upper ends of these last-named shorter slots curve outwardly away from the central slot, each forming a slide-Way, the purpose of which will hereafter appear.

The side plates are considerably longer than the height of the mop-receiving receptacle and are wider than the receptacle, so as to form a downwardly extending support 22 on each side plate below the receptacle with its rear side 23 curved and so adapted to engage the inner side of a suitable pail or tank with which mop wringers of this description are usually used. Above each side 23' is a slot 45 by means of which the mop wringer is detachably secured upon the upper edge of the pail or tank, retained by downwardly extending hooks t"! provided on the side plates 56.

Into the portion of each side plate above the level of the top of the mop-receiving receptacle the upper ends of said three slots in said side plate extend, with the central slot 2% particularly extending a considerable distance above top level of the receptacle.

A strong transversely extending shaft 24 has its opposite ends rotatably mounted in the upper portion of each side plate above the receptacle of the wringer and preferably a little to the rear of the vertical plane of the rear plate of the receptacle.

In this specification and in the drawings and in most of the claims it is assumed that my mop wringer is organized so that the operating lever will be grasped by the right hand of the operator and moved fcrwardlyor towards the operator and pressed down while, especially at the beginning of the operation, the mop stick will be held by the left hand of the operator. This method 7 of construction and assembly and operation has .hereinafter are drawn with that possibility in view; in other words my operating mechanism of links, levers and sliders is not necessarily limited to a mop wringer of this general type where the operating lever is drawn forward and pressed down.

The hand operated lever 25 is rigidly mounted in an upright position relative to the said shaft by providing said shaft with a strong socket 28 preferably integrally formed with said shaft, so that by passing a suitable bolt through opposite apertures in said socket and through the lower end of said hand lever and attaching a nut to the projecting end of said bolt, the hand lever which is conveniently formed of a piece of strong pipe or tubing with its upper end rounded to be comfortable against the hand, will be securely and rigidly connected to said shaft.

Near each end of said shaft 24 there is provided a strong crank arm 2'! absolutely rigid relative to said shaft as by said crank arms being formed integral with said shaft. These crank arms extend upwardly and preferably slant forwardly a little more than the hand lever when the hand lever is in upright and slightly backslanting position, when the mop wringer has its parts in open position. These crank arms pass forward inside of the parts lB of the side plates to which the ends of the said shaft are pivotally mounted but pass forward at the outside of the rest of the upstanding upper part of the side plates. This arrangement is accomplished by the portion Iii of the side plates to which the shaft is swingingly attached being offset outwardly relative to the main plane of the side plates.

Two presser pads 28 are provided which are similar, one being for use at the front and the other at the back of the receptacle. Each pad has the length to easily but closely fit within the transverse dimensions of the chamber of said receptacle. pads appears in Fig, 7 and a top edge view of the pad in the open position is shown in Fig. 10. Each pad 28 is provided at each end with an inwardly extending wing 45 as the pad is viewed in Fig. 10 and each wing has on its outer side an ear 29, which as best seen in Figs. 10 and 11 is somewhat elongated and such length is at right angles to the main plane of the said pad and is adapted to be mounted and freely slide in one of the shorter Vertical guide slots 2i so that when said mop wringer is in its open position the said ears will be in the outwardly curved portions of said guide slots 2! (see Figs. 1 and 2) and the said pads will be in substantially vertical position, the front one extending substantially upright from the upper edge of the front plate of the said receptacle and the rear pad extending substantially upright from the upper edge of the rear wall of the receptacle.

At the inner or right-hand portion of each of said ears as seen in Fig. 10 there is provided an outwardly extending pintle 3b which is oifset relative to the main plane of the pad or towards the right as the parts are seen in Fig. 10 so that as the pads are in the outer position as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 with their inner faces substantially in line with the inner faces of the front and rear walls of the receptacle the pintles will be nearer to the Vertical median line of the receptacle.

Each of these pintles 3E3 projects into an outwardly extending and downwardly slanting slot 3i provided near the outer end of the opposite arms 32 of an inverted T-shaped slider 33, a plan or elevational View of which is separately shown in Fig. 8. Two such sliders 33 are provided one on either side of the receptacle of the wringer and securely slidingly mounted thereon for vertical movement relative to the adjacent side plate Eli, by means of inward projections 34, one located near the top of the upright of said sliders and one near the bottom thereof. These projections may conveniently be in the form of headed studs having their heads on the inside of the side plate, preferably with a washer interposed between the head of such stud and the adjacent side plate and with the shank of said stud projected through a suitable hole in said upright of the sliders, with its extremity riveted over against the outside surface of said sliders,

Each slider near the lower end of its upright is provided with a strong outwardly extending centrally apertured lug 35. At the outer extremity of said lug 35 is placed a washer, the inner surface of which slidingly engages the outer sur- A perspective view of one of these face of a main lever 36 adjacent an elongated slot 37, near one end of said lever. A headed rivet is projected through the washer and lug and is riveted over at its inner end and operates to keep the lever on said lug. The parts are so constructed that this end of said lever 36 is slidingly and swingingly articulated upon said outwardly projected lug 35. The other or rear end of said main lever 36 is swingingly mounted as at 38 upon the rearward portion of the side plate.

At each side of the wringer there is provided an upwardly extending link 39 having its lower end pivotally mounted as at 49 upon said main operating lever 36 as close as practicable to the slot 31 of said lever. The upper end of each of these links 39 has pivotally attached thereto a pair of shorter links ll one ateach surface of said link 39 for the better distribution of the strain and wear on the the pivot pin #2 connecting each pair of links to said lever 38. The lower ends of each pair of links M embrace and are pivotally connected as by pivot pin 43 to the outer end of the crank arm 2? at their side of the receptacle.

Strong springs ii; are provided acting to open the mop wringer after it has been closed. Each of these springs is preferably in the form of a coiled spring having several convolutions coiled about the pin 38 used to mount the rear end of the main lever 35 upon the rear portion of the side plate 56, with the out-turned ends of each spring held respectively by an ear 39 on the hook t? and by a stop 56 on the said lever 36, the parts being so arranged that as the mop wringer is closed the said springs are placed under greater tension so that the springs can operate to raise the main levers 3% and thereby the sliders and thereby the presser pads are raised and moved outwardly to initial open position.

If the parts so far described were allowed to continue their apparent normal course, as the crank arms 2'? would move from their substantially horizontal position as shown in Fig. 4 past the position shown in Fig. 9 which is about halfway towards their ultimate position, as shown in Fig. 5, the said arms and links would assume a position resembling somewhat or getting the mechanical equivalent of, a toggle-joint construction due to the considerable rotary movement in a counter-clockwise direction of the crank arms 2'5, really effecting only slight downward movement of the pair of shorter links ll and their connected longer links 39. It is well known that this toggle-joint action is capable of producing almost infinitely high power during the period while the parts of a real toggle-joint are straight ening out or while a crank arm is making the last part of its power stroke. This very high power is commonly used for punching or shearing metal by hand power. This very high power in construction such as mine however is not required for the purpose of simply squeezing water out of a fibrous mop and the permitting of the parts to exert such a terrific power upon the elements of a mop wringer of the type in question would place altogether too much strain upon the parts of the mop wringer and would tend to force out the bottom of the receptacle or otherwise break or strain or bend some of the parts of my mop wringer.

Consequently I not only construct my wringer so that the crank arms 2"! do not go to the final straight down-pointing position but I have placed in the structure so far described, a means for not only modifying the action of the said parts so that they will not operate ultimately in a togglelike action but with said means also providing an opportunity for controlling the leverage to a predetermined extent. a

One form of this means may consist in providing upon each crank arm 21 and projecting therebeyond at each face a stop pin 51 so located (see Figs. i, 5 and 9) that after the parts move a considerable distance from the, position of said parts shown in Fig. 4 to the intermediate position shown in Fig. 9 the two projecting ends of said stop pin M will engage the right-hand edge of the outer and inner shorter connecting links ll and thereby prevent the said links M from swinging at their upper ends any further to the right past the relative position of the crank arms 21 and links ll as seen in Fig. 9. In other words this pin holds the shorter links M outwardly at an appreciable angle to the crank arms 2?. the said shorter connecting links M from swinging at their upper ends over the crank arms 2'1 any farther than is shown in Fig. 9. During their travel from the position of Fig. 9 to their ultimate downward position shown in Fig. 5, that is after pin comes into operation, the ratio of leverage reins-ins substantially constant at a predetermined value fixed as hereinafter described by the location or size of the stop pin 5!. The construction here shown however will produce ample power for the ordinary person operating a mop wringer to easily extract substantially. all the water from the fiber of the mop. This form of modified toggle-like action at the end of the downward stroke of the handle lever saves the 1 mop wringer from what might be self-destructive strains when the mop wringer happens to be operated by astrong or very energetic person.

Another form of modifying the action of the parts so as to control the leverage of the parts of my wringer towards the end of its operating stroke consists in providing each of the crank arms 2'? on their upper edge as seen in Fig. 12 with an upwardly projecting ear 53 and in providing on the upper portion of the rear side of the long links 355 (as seen in Fig. 12) a rearwardly extending protuberance 53. It will be obvious that as the power stroke of the wringer causes its partstc move from the position shown in Fig. 12 farther towards closed position, the lower and rearward face 55 of the protuberance 5 will come into sliding engagement with the upper face 53 of the ear 5-3 protuberance will make a rolling and sliding contact along the said face 53 of the crank arm until the parts at the end of the closing movement of the mop wringer come to approximately the relative position shown in Fig. 5 where the other form of control, viz. the stop pin 5! is used.

It will be seen that the rearward extent of the protuberance on the upper portion of the long links is sufficient to keep the short links ll swung out at an angle from the crank arms 27 to substantially the extent shown in Fig. 12 during 1e completion of the travel of the parts of the mop wringer to closed position. This form of the means for controlling the power at the end of the operating stroke of the wringer operates with substantially the same results as already described by the use of the stop pin 5 i. In other words the protuberance 5 and particularly its face 55 and This prevents and the rounding face 55 of said then its curved face 55 by making a contact with j the edge 53 of car 53 on the crank arms keeps the pivot pin as out from the crank arm 21 to about tion shown in Fig. 2.

the extent shown in Fig. 12 so that while the crank arm 2'5 is making the last part of its allowable downward movement the effective lever is really the line connecting the axis of the crank shaft 2% and. the pivot pin t2 and this is not substantially shortened even during'the latter portion of the downward travel of the crank arm 27.

It will be noticed that these two forms of means for controlling the leverage of the parts within the mop wringer towards the end of its operating stroke are not inconsistent or con tradictory but are really harmonious, close mechanical equivalents and can be made to supplement each other at different parts of the latter portion of the closing operation of the mop wringer. Ordinarily however only one form of these means for preventing self-destructive pressure within the mop wringer will be used.

By varying slightly either the location or the diameter of the stop pin 5| or by varying the extent and location of the protuberance E l on the long links 39, or the amount of projection of the ear 53 on the crank arms 2"! the mop wringer can be adapted to the type of work or operation that the wringer is to do or to the size of the fiber of the mop that is to be used.

For instance it will be obvious that if the location of stop pins 5i on the crank arms 2! be moved to the right or be decreased in size, the

short links ill will be allowed to fold over the crank arms to a further extent and thus the period of increasing pressure will be prolonged and during the following period of fixed or constant pressure the leverage will be greater. Furthermore the same results would be attained by decreasing the size of the ears 53 on the crank arms and/or by decreasing the size of the protuberances lid on the long links 3:). Thus the parts for a given size of wringer or grade of work can be adapted by the manufacturer to a larger size of wringer or to a harder grade of work.

Again obviously the opposite results in such control mechanism would be accomplished by moving the pins 5! in the crank arms to the left as seen in Fig. 9, or by increasing the size of the ears 53 and/or the protuberances 5%. Thus the parts for a given size of wringer or grade of work, can be adapted to operate properly in a really smaller wringer (as one having a smaller mop receptacle) or for a lighter grade of work.

It will be seen that this ability to easily vary the means for controlling the action of the parts is an important manufacturing economy in that varying these control means on one or two parts will adapt the main parts of the wringer to several sizes or classes of wringers without the maker having to provide a full set of the different parts for each size or class of wringer.

On the outer face of each side plate l5 and on the portion thereof towards the rear from the upper portion of the middle slot or guideway 28 there is provided an outwardly extendmg curved guide 52 which serves to overcome any slight tendency of the links ll and as to open up or unfold as the parts of the rnop are returning to opened position. Such tendency may occur if for any reason the pads are held back or are clogged somewhat during their upward motion as the parts are moving from the fully down position of Fig. 5 to and through the position shown in Fig. 4 and towards the posi- In the positions shown In Figs. 4 and 2 the connected upper ends of the links 39 and M are shown as engaging or nearly engaging this guide 52; The inner or concave curve of the guide 52 is so shaped as to compel the junction ends of these links 39 and 4| to travel in a curved line close to or coinciding with the line of movement of the engaged parts of said levers when the mop pads are not subjected to any such binding action or strain.

What I claim as new is:

1. For a mop wringer having a perforated mop-receptacle and a pair of mop-pressing pads movable from above and beside the receptacle over and down into the receptacle against the mop, an operating mechanism comprising a rock shaft rotatable by a hand operated lever, crank arms on said rock shaft operatively connected by a series of links, levers and sliders to said pressing pads, said crank arms operating during the later part of the wringing operation to effect a progressively increasing leverage as the links attached thereto gradually fold upon the said crank arms.

2. For a mop wringer having a perforated mopreceptacle and a pair of mop-pressing pads movable from above and beside the receptacle over and down into the receptacle against the mop, an operating mechanism comprising a rock shaft rotatable by a hand operated lever, crank arms on said rock shaft operatively connected by a series of links, levers and sliders to said pressing pads, said crank arms operating during the latter part of the wringing operation to effect a progressively increasing leverage as the links attached thereto gradually fold upon the said crank arms and means for holding substantially constant the leverage of said mechanism after a predetermined point in said latter part of the wringing operation.

3. For a mop wringer having a perforated mopreceptacle and a pair of mop-pressing pads movable from above and beside the receptacle over and down into the receptacle against the mop, an operating mechanism comprising a rock shaft rotatable by a hand-operated lever, crank arms on said rock shaft operatively connected by a series of links, levers and sliders, to said pressing pads, said crank arms operating during the latter part of the wringing operation to effect a progressively increasing leverage as the links attached thereto gradually fold upon the said crank arms and means for holding substantially constant the leverage of said mechanism after a predetermined point in said latter part of the wringing operation, saidcontrolling means operating to limit the folding together of said co-operating links and said crank arms.

4. For a mop wringer having a perforated mopreceptacle and a pair of mop-pressing pads movable from above and beside the receptacle over and down into the receptacle against the mop, an operating mechanism comprising a rock shaft rotatable by a hand operated lever, crank arms on said rock shaft operatively connected by a series of links, levers and sliders to said pressing pads, said crank arms operating during the latter part of the wringing operation to effect a progressively increasing leverage as the links attached thereto gradually fold upon the said crank arms and means for holding substantially constant the leverage of said mechanism after a pre determined point in said later part of the wringing operation, said controlling means including a projection on one member of a co-operating set of links and crank arms operating to limit the folding together of said links and crank arms.

5-. For a mop Wringer having a perforated mopreceptacle and a pair of mop-pressing pads movable from above and beside the receptacle over and down into the receptacle against the mop, an operating mechanism comprising a rock shaft rotatable by a hand operated lever, crank arms on said rock shaft operatively connected by a series of links, levers and sliders to said pressing pads, said crank arms operating during the later part of the wringing operation to effect a progressively increasing leverage as the links attached thereto gradually fold upon the said crank arms and means for holding substantially constant the leverage of said mechanism after a predetermined point in said later part of the wringing operation, said controlling means including a projection upon the crank arm of each set of crank arms and links.

6. For a mop wringer having a perforated mop receptacle and a pair of mop-pressing pads movable from above and beside the receptacle over and down into the receptacle and against the mop, an operating mechanism comprising a rock shaft rotatable by a hand-operated lever, and having a pair of crank arms, a pair of inverted T-shaped sliders each operatively connected to said presser pads to effect the inward and downward motion of said pads on downward movement of said sliders, a main lever for each slider slidable from above and beside the receptacle over and down into the receptacle against the mop, an operating mechanism comprising a rock shaft rotatable by a hand operated lever, a pair of crank arms on said rock shaft each operatively connected by a set of links, a lever, and a slider to said pressing pads and a rigidly supported curved guide over the attached ends of each set of links operating to confine the connected ends of said links to the correct line of travel and to prevent said connected links from unfolding too much if the presser pad should be hindered from free upward travel on the opening of the wringer.

' ROBERT M. ELKINGTON. 

